


prodigy without conscience

by mokkei



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: AtLA AU, M/M, So much violence, basically port is a mega bloodbender and he's also been brainwashed for years, but also his little brother, he's a minor prince not the crowned prince or anything yet, i bet you're wondering where the avatar is...haha you'll see, i promise it gets funnier and happier but also sadder, iberian brothers excellence, lovi is from the firenation, no beta we just suffer if there's something wrong lol, port literally loves violence, toni and port are from the water tribe, wow portugal you say? yes he's a bitch in canon and everyone just ignore him cause he's not animated
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:55:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24616393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mokkei/pseuds/mokkei
Summary: Mother made them train every day.The cycle never seemed to end. Wake up, eat something filling, and file behind her with Antonio grasping on to the very edge of Andres' fur pelt. Despite the early mornings and late nights, neither boy seemed to care. Mother was there for them and she was doing this out of the goodness of her heart. Without her, they would never be able to water bend.Though, they weren't going to water bend for very long.
Relationships: Germany/North Italy (Hetalia), Netherlands/Portugal (Hetalia), South Italy/Spain (Hetalia)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 29





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Basically this is a separate atla universe entirely like no aang or korra just obscure figures who were avatars, but this is set between that time. Republic City exists but it's just now becoming modernized. The Fire Nation did terrible things like 50 years, but some people haven't recovered despite efforts.

Mother made them train every day. 

The cycle never seemed to end. Wake up, eat something filling, and file behind her with Antonio grasping on to the very edge of Andres' fur pelt. Despite the early mornings and late nights, neither boy seemed to care. Mother was there for them and she was doing this out of the goodness of her heart. Without her, they would never be able to water bend. 

Though, they weren't going to water bend for very long. 

Mother was keen to teach them something new, something no one else did and had yet to accomplish. Mother was bound to make them blood benders, it was her dream like no other. 

She chattered endlessly over texts Andres was not sure existed and preached to Antonio about men who can will a human to do whatever they wanted - without the need of asking, without consent, without the flick of a finger. For her, she wanted something better as she stated, for both of them. Though, it quickly became apparent that truly wasn't her only motive. 

The same year that they began their training, Father left them for another woman. Andres seemed to be the most affected by the sudden departure, but there was nothing conceivably similar to the rage his mother felt. Unbeknownst to them both, they would soon know that resentment.

Mother could also bend, but father never learned how because he was unable to. Her bending was lighting quick, something that Andres picked up with ease, but Antonio could not. She would chide him for his slow movements with his water and provide yet another example he should pick up. Antonio never understood the need to move fast when it was so much easier to take his time.

Once both of them learned the basics with ease - how to glide on the water, the push and pull of their spirits in tandem with their bending, the rush splashing one another in the warmest months - it was time for them to move on. It should have been joyous because Mother was smiling her brightest into Andres' soft brown hairs with three long fingers massaging the crown of his head until the hand was gone returned with a stinging pain in the side of his face. 

"Next time you think about playing in times as serious as now, you're going to receive more than a tap as punishment." 

Antonio wanted to yell, clearly frightened by this development, but Andres said nothing. Andres stood and waited for her cup his cheek with soft coos about warm drinks back at home before any of them returned home and fell into slumber without understanding just what was going to come. 

The day that Mother mentions blood-bending outside of storybooks, Andres felt his stomach curl in disgust. Antonio did not understand until the arctic mouse hiding away in her furs was placed in front of the two of them and began to convulse. Antonio stepped forward to rescue the poor animal, but Mother called out well before he reaches it. 

"This is what we are training for," she began all ice in her tone, "blood bending is the most powerful tool in the world no one can escape. No one will be able to defy you with skills like these. And you two will carry out the revenge I have never received the chance to dish out." 

The tiny creature's pain ended with her sentence. Fortunate enough for the siblings, Mother is unable to blood bend anything larger than the mouse, but she could still harm them in other ways. Her words were particularly biting, but Andres didn't believe anything hurt worse than the freezing pain of water slashing his barren back in the coldest days of the year. Instead of bruising properly, they maintained their shapes on his back for weeks and the ones which drew blood scarred. Antonio was not saved from all the physical damage, but Andres stopped as much as could with his good words.

While Mother was not kind to Andres during their training sessions, he was her pride and joy. His ability to learn blood-bending at a pace so rapid boggled her and excited her all the more. Antonio was not fond of the new skills and suffered painful words when his bending broke from exhaustion. Nothing was ever good enough for her to be satisfied. Not even when Andres bent three camel yaks down in front of her feet, she still claimed for more to be done.

"Until you can blood bend without the use of your body, you're not going to be prepared for the fire nation."

She always spoke about the Fire Nation. For two brothers who had never left the coastal, isolated region of the Southern Water Tribe, the tales were terrifying. People who burned you with flames used to cook meat or light torches, lighting bolts conjured from thunderous storms, and scars that left constant red on your skin. She told them monstrous myths and informed them that the Fire Nation was out to get them too but only their unique blood-bending would be able to save their precious lives. 

Andres, despite never seeing some bend the flames, fell too easily to her. Her lies infiltrated his dreams when he lay his head after a day of worrying about his form if it was finally perfect enough for her if she could say that he was safe. But the distortions only worsened. 

By the age of fifteen, Andres was considered victorious by his mother. They had moved on from animals one blisteringly cold night and prepared to try blood-bending other humans. Being on the coast allowed them access to fishing villages and tourist from the capital who wanted to fish or hunt for game. It was easier to find humans than it was animals. 

"Go on," Mother points in the direction of the lone man slumbering by his waning campfire.

Without a second thought, Andres lept from his vantage point, snow crunching under his weight and alerting the drowsy hunter. 

Startled eyes met those of young, calculated blue ones, "Are you lost, boy? I can help ya' get home." 

Andres did not respond.

"Boy?"

Andres, this time, did not give him the time to speak another word. His pupils widened with the influx of adrenaline rushing through his body as he focused on his target. Shaking, bent limbs, and muffled groans of pain echoed around the campfire. Mother's mitten covered hands clenched the snowdrift she was waiting by eagerly, egging Andres on more and more until the hunter's body slumped sickeningly against the ground. 

"You did it! Andres, you did it! I'm so proud of you, you've mastered blood bending," she cupped his cold cheeks in her hands and left one warm kiss on his forehead. Without so much as looking at Antonio, she continued to speak, "That is how you blood bend, Antonio. Now, it's your turn, complete the task." 

Antonio's throat was as dry as the air around them. There was no way what he just witnessed was reasonable. 

It made him feel nauseated. It made him want to cry for what had just happened to that man. 

"Mama no, I can't do that," Antonio sputters, falling over each word while his little hands trembled. 

Mother wasn't happy.

Mother was furious with Antonio, "I told you to do something, so you better do damn well right now or you're going to regret it." 

Antonio still shook his head, breathing into his gloved hands in hopes of warming the dryness in his mouth. 

"Can you not be a good boy like Andres? You want the Fire Nation to come for us, don't you? Don't you!" Her screams echoed around the campsite with all other noises seemingly stilled in the heavy snow. 

There was no answer from Antonio, just fat globs of tears streaking his already cold face. Because he was scared, because he was a child, because he had no other choice but to be here and suffer from his father's lack of responsibility, Antonio was stuck cowering behind thin air. 

Mother's eyes held no respite, "I'll show you punishment beyond those little nips you receive at home," she materialized four whip-like water appendages on her fingers, "this is all your fault."

And then she stopped. 

She was frozen in place, eyes blown wide, "Andres! Stop this! I'm your mother, I love you." 

"No," Andres sidestepped in between the two of them, "You can't even do anything about it. We're not the weak ones, you are! The Fire Nation will kill _you_ for being weak." 

Andres' bottom lip wobbled despite the tightness of his jaw, "You never shut the fuck up about our blood bending! You think it's so amazing to tell us how fucking bad we are but you can't do anything at all. You're useless."

He tightened his control over her already wobbling body. She wouldn't be able to breathe soon, but Andres could not care. 

"This is all your fault, Mama," Andreas glared at her as if she was the clumped snow on the bottom of his shoes.

The skin around her neck was turning blue from the power behind his bending. She might have been proud of him if it weren't being used against her.

"Just leave him alone." 

As suddenly as it came, the pressure on her neck was gone and her body fell limp in the powder. 

Antonio yelped in fear but met his brother's eyes. They weren't so cold anymore. He looked just as afraid. 

Their staredown couldn't have lasted more than a few seconds before Andres kicked up the snow in front of them and bolted without so much of a word. 

No amount of screaming could bring him back, Antonio found. Against everything his body told him to do, Antonio scampered back to his mother's side and attempted to drag her along with him. They needed to leave before this man woke up and remembered their faces. 

Powerful winds nipped at his neck until exhaustion finally set in. There was only so much a thirteen-year-old could carry before it became too much. 

They were found sometime before daybreak and allowed into the nearest healer's home. Antonio's fall to the ground caused enough damage to the back of his head that when he woke up he had trouble with simple motor skills, but when he learned about his ability to bend, he fearfully shied away from it for fears he could not remember. 

Antonio was lucky enough to wake up.

Mother never opened her eyes again. She passed within the week and the suffering Antonio endured followed in the months to come as he relocated to live with his nearest neighbors. 

Andreas did not come back. Antonio is positive that he perished in the storm that night.

* * *

With each passing moon, Antonio grew to understand his situation. Instead of lamenting it, he grew to love his new family and would only use his bending if his adoptive father needed him on their fishing trips. 

Yet, there was a new foe at the port sticking his nose where it shouldn't be that sparked attention in the coastal regions. 

Antonio had been tending to the nets left to him when a very large and warm breath sent the hairs on the back of his neck to stand, "I really don't have any money..." 

His nose met a cold and very large snout. That said snout belonging to a tiger-whale with gold crested reigns in its mouth. The unamused rider perched against what seemed to be a saddle for more than one, "Who said anything about money? Say, have you heard anything about blood-benders in this area?"


	2. A Young Prince's Arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lovino gaffed, "Blood benders are myths, no legends, no one has ever seen one and now he expects for all of us to go out and find him one so we can become Fire Lord? The line of succession means jack shit."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> back with a sexy new update

The Fire Nation was well known throughout the world as the aggressors of a war that killed hundreds of thousands. 

Not only had they been more technologically advanced with their machinery, but they kept a watchful eye on the calendar and an even closer one on each one of their subjects. The propaganda had begun in the schools, and soon enough, no one was left to remember that the Fire Nation wasn't the greatest nation on Earth. People turned up missing, some never went home the same, and others were forced to devote themselves to a country that used their never-ending bodies as first in line calvary.

Things changed rapidly when the Avatar returned. Within a year, the previous Fire Lord was imprisoned and a new leader had charge over a confused people. 

With great leadership, the new Fire Lord continued to build a forgiving, mournful nation which had to be briefed extensively to rid their minds of their supremacy. Soldiers that had been deployed were sent home and forced to stay until they were deemed fit enough to return into noncombatant service or another job. For plenty of them, this led to the common disdain of their new leader and most had still not understood the wrongfulness of what their country had been doing, but when you're born into supremacy, you never do want to give it up. 

The Fire Nation was never as rich as they had been when pillaging and colonizing the world, but they managed to grow into a wealthy and stable nation despite their gruesome past. 

It had been fifty-seven years since the coup, and while the nation was doing well, their now beloved leader was not. 

In fact, he was doing quite terribly honestly. 

The world's best healers were on hand in his quarters nearly all day and night. Each time the guards heard him cough, listened to his pained groans, or escorted him to the toilet, they would typically (fearfully) call for the Northern healers to meet back in the room for another round of the wonderful 'heals you for an hour at a time' type bending. 

It seemed that the staff didn't quite fear the Fire Lord and more so directed those frightened squeaks towards the expansive royal family. 

Serving the Fire Lord's children, grandchildren, cousins, and more was a blessing and a curse. Some of them were terribly spoiled and had tempers bigger than themselves, but others had embraced peace. Fear still outweighed the good deeds those who cared less about the throne could perform. 

Ah, the throne.

It was coming time that the heir is announced who would succeed the Fire Lord and continue leading the nation through more days of tranquility and paperwork. Despite the several assassination attempts and murder of his only heir, the Fire Lord never gave up his position. Now he was an old, fragile man with a debilitating sickness which left him hunched over in his too expensive pillows in near-constant pain. 

Lovino felt he was the perfect fit to take over his great-grandfather's position. Not only was he technically in line - his grandfather was the closest blood relative to the heir, but he had turned down the Fire Lord's position - but he had the perfect attitude to be the same great leader. At least, that's what he and every single one of his cousins, uncles, and other even more distant relatives had said. Lovino wondered if this is what happened whenever you allow yourself to indulge in too many women and not stick to having a royal wife. The man had insisted he was married to his job, but Lovino had heard his grandfather muttering something about seeing him spend late nights in quarters across the palace. 

Even so, Lovino told himself that he wasn't going to put his future in shambles like his relative. He was bound to marry a pretty little noble lady and spend his free time chasing her long hair over the cascading hills at one of their many villas. That is how he wanted for it to pan out.

For now, he was still a young and eligible bachelor with a plethora of ladies waiting for him each time he rode his ostrich horse through the capital or waited for him to blow kisses at them from behind barricades of soldiers so no one could get too close to him. They were allowed to observe his training, watch him launch strikes of lighting, and send massive fireballs sent at unmoving dummies 

One of Lovino's cousins may have mastered telekinetic combustion, but Lovino was the closest to being the next Fire Lord, he always bragged. 

Until he wasn't. 

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" One very large and expensive, possibly priceless vase shattered. 

Romulus sighed, "How was training?"

"Don't ask stupid questions in a time like this!"

"My day was quite fun. I had a few youngsters break into my garden and steal some fruits off of the tree we planted a few years back. Don't you remember how peaceful it was?"

Lovino narrowed his already very narrowed eyes. 

"I see, what could be bugging my bodacious grandson at," Romulus paused, "noon?"

Jerking a roll of paper from out from inside his decorated coat, Lovino began his spiel.

"The looney old fart wants a blood bender! A blood bender! He thinks finding some mythical monster is going to ease him of his pain. I knew he had gone fucking senile, but this is too much!" Lovino slammed his hand into the desk. Romulus peered at the contents on the paper with his watering can still in hand from his time outside. 

Lovino gaffed, "Blood benders are myths, no legends, no one has ever seen one and now he expects for all of us to go out and find him one so we can become Fire Lord? The line of succession means jack shit." 

"Lovino, I would think that with the studies you were supposed to learn, you would know that bending is limitless. Who knows whether a blood bender exists? You can form lightning and redirect it can you not? The water tribe is vastly unexplored due to our nation's mistake of imprisoning the last of them from the South. Never underestimate them."

One deep breath and a cup of warm tea later had Lovino squishing his cheek against the table, "Francis and the rest of them already headed north," he hiccuped, "I'm already out of luck and resources since they'll get there before I even leave the capital." 

They were all older than him by a few years and had allowances that let them buy ships and men who would guide them. 

"Who said you were heading north?" 

Lovino whipped his head to meet painful observant eyes, "You mean...?"

Romulus took a long and well-deserved gulp of his tea. 

Lovino could barely force himself to sleep that night not even knowing what the plans were. When morning came and his less than tired eyes snapped open, he waddled out in suede robes only to be greeted by a letter on the table. Grandfather wasn't home, instead on official business Lovino didn't remember him having. He left his golden crest as a sign of importance and a scroll Lovino only had to glance at once before he all but piled his closet into a knapsack and ran as fast as he could to the large stable Gianni was waiting for him in. 

"If it's a blood bender he wants, it's a blood bender the old bastard will get."

* * *

"No. No. No. What do you mean you have no clue what a blood bender is? You're apart of the damn water tribe!"

"Well, I am saying I have no idea what that is, honestly," Antonio lifted the full net with one hand and emptied it into the bucket.

One fish flopped messily near Lovino's feet. He jumped.

"Someone who can bend your blood? Listen, I've got a notice that details mysterious sightings on the coastal region of the Southern Water Tribe, ahem, here," Lovino unfurled the rather nice scroll and shoved it in Antonio's face. 

"I hate to make your mood worse," Lovino looked like he was about to bite him, "but I'm not a guy who's able to read that well." 

Antonio bowed his head politely and began to leave. Lovino was having none of it. He climbed back onto Gianni's back and began his pursuit. 

"I think you misunderstood me," Antonio was the first person on the coast he had been able to talk too since there were so few people and they were all the Fire Lord's age and saw through his facade of covering up his Fire Nation heritage, "I just need information about the Monster of the South. My gr- This paper says that the people it attacks are only visitors from the Fire Nation and they end up with contorted limbs and next to no memory of what happened. It could have something to do with blood bending! So many people come to the coast for beaches and fishing, you have to know something!"

Antonio looked at Lovino with sympathy and hauled the bucket on one shoulder and continued his descent next to a giant tiger-whale on steep rocks to his humble home. His adoptive father was in the capital selling their fish, "I really don't know anything about some monster, are they sure it isn't them rousing up a bunch of camel yaks? They get angry easily."

Lovino eye began to twitch and he hopped down the saddle to follow said infuriating man inside.

"Listen, can you just give me the time of day instead of going into this fucking fishing shack!"

"This is my home."

Lovino paled, "Your home," he corrects, "which is very lovely! But, still, you have no idea who I am do you?"

Antonio dropped the bucket and put his fishy fingers on his chin, "Now that you mention it, I do know!"

A proud smile materialized on Lovino's face.

"You're the guy from the capital, the one who makes the bread fish shapes. I remember you now!"

Lovino fumed with anger, so much so that the snow on the top of the home began to melt. Antonio gave him a starry-eyed grin and moved past him once again to the door. 

"No, you ass," His jaw clenched but he continued to speak, "I am Lovino, Prince of the Fire Nation and I will be crowned the next Fire Lord before the end of the winter solstice next year!"

"You will be what?" An unfamiliar voice with a face so similar to Antonio's stood in front of the door, words dripping so heavily with malice Lovino began to think that the jacket he wore was heavier than he had thought.

"Brother!"

"Brother."

"Brother?!"

The mystery man took a few instinctive steps backward and eyed Lovino like a prize. Lovino could feel his hand twitching as if preparing to release a striking blow. 

Time seemed to move slowly once Lovino rose his hand, preparing to be met with a gush of water, ice, anything, but he found he could not move. His limbs ached, he felt all control leave his body, and the pain behind his eyes caused him immense discomfort. Breathing was becoming a chore.

Antonio saw the puffs of smoke leave Lovino's hand and then disappear in the chilly air. Not a second had passed, but surprising reunion had turned damp so quickly. 

"What are you doing? Let go of him!" Antonio shoved Andres' shoulder roughly, not liking this sort of bending at all. 

A very strained yet stubborn voice griped, "You're the fucking blood bender." 

Antonio met his brother's big blue eyes. One of them has ascertained a lengthy scar and the other looked similar to the way they did when they were children had they not contained new bloodlust. 

Before Antonio could even speak, he was cut off.

"Toni," Andres began, "I need your help. I really need your help. This piece of shit came here to kill me. Wants to lock me up in a cage. Fucking firebenders, they think they're the most powerful beings on Earth, but they're not. I am." 

His sentences were so punctuated. Antonio wondered if he actually believed them. Lovino's body was writhing, Antonio couldn't let this go on anymore. 

Antonio avoided the question. 

"I said put him down, now, Andres." Antonio shoved a little bit harder this time and Andres lost his footing for a few steps. 

"Oh?" Andres dropped a gasping Lovino on the ground, heaving with purple-blue fingers and gripping the snow like a lifeline, "You're going to let the Fire Nation lord over you too? You're fucking stupid, just like always. I won't let them." 

Andres was nose to nose with his brother now - so much different than those years ago when he was a scared little kid. 

"I can't let you stay here, Toni, you should listen to me. I came back to get you, for you to help me! I'm protecting us." 

Antonio blinked and Andres' eyes were wide again. His mouth became dry. He thought about what he could possibly do with what he had seen his brother capable of doing.

A weak, crackling sound erupted from below. Before Antonio could properly step away, Andres was struck with perhaps the puniest but most time-efficient lightning bolt he'd witnessed, yet went down all the same. 

Lovino stood, breathing heavy, but proud when the vast swaths of snow billowed around his form, "I'll burn your blood to a fucking crisp the next time you think about ever doing that to me." 

Antonio's reaction was delayed, but he was able to catch Lovino and hold him close to him so any reckless thoughts didn't send him after Andres. If they could find him in the blinding snow coverage. The blast may have been small, but the ground was packed with pillowy snow and exploded around them. 

Lovino went slack in Antonio's arms and slid down into the snow with one large arm covering his face for him. 

Once the snow settled, Andres was gone and Lovino's blood was still boiling. He swatted at Antonio who let him go with some forlorn. 

Sinking further into the snow without the proper footwear, Lovino's knees hit the ground first and his ass was second. It was so fucking cold. 

The air around them was dead silent.

Antonio smacked his lips together as he stood, "So...you're a Prince, huh?"

Cold, wet, and hungry, Lovino laid his head in the snow and screamed.


End file.
